Okay, so. I have been playing for a while with Ryze and haven't really seen any builds out there quite like the one I use. I really like this build because it turns Ryze into a tanky-bursty-mage of awesomeness. I'll explain everything below. But, trust me. If you find yourself dying more than you would like with Ryze, this is the build you should use.

The Item list on the build may look a little large. But that is only because I went ahead and put down all the abilities in the order that I would get them if I only had the money for the next item. This way, you can see how I prioritize building each item individually.


Thanks for picking this build! Good Luck and Have Fun!

There is are a lot of things that Ryze is good at. And there are a few things that Ryze is bad at. Here they are in a nutshell:


Pros: HUGE burst damage -- I could stop here, and that would be enough. But there is more.
Very effective crowd control -- supression that does a significant amount of damage
Building Mana also builds his AP -- how neat is that?
He can reset his own cooldowns simply by using them
Strong mid-late game

Cons: Weaker early game -- just doesn't have the damage output for a few levels
Requires a cool head -- need to use skills in order, not simply spam them
Mid ranged spells -- requires a decent amount of chasing
Get talked at for being too powerful
His head is really funny shaped...


I have played as several mages (ezreal, xerath, brand, etc) and find that Ryze has the most damage output and can sustain longest because of his high mana build.

Items. Above you will see the build that I use. The last few items are subjective as to their order. If the enemy is building magic resistance, throw on Void Staff. If they are building a lot of high magic DPS, rush the Banshee. If you want to deal crazy insane amounts of damage, the Rabadon's is the way to go.

As so the others: I get the Meki pendant in order to stay in lane longer. This gives you mana regen that will increase your sustainability. With all the runes on mana, you will be able to put out enough damage with your first two abilities to push back / kill the champs (or champ) in your lane. Once you get close to level three or four, you should be able to build the tear and the boots of speed in order to ensure that you are deal damage and regening mana.

Boots of speed are really important. Ryze's spells are not as long ranged as some. So you have to be able to chase at least to that range. Boots of speed (later upgraded to sorcerer's shoes) will allow you to do just that.

Frozen Heart is the next big item. This is a huge step toward the tankiness I mentioned earlier. This item gives you armor and mana. The beauty of it is that it gives you a lot of both. This means that you have the ability to survive against a lot of basic attacks or AD attacks, while putting off even more damage. When I get this item, that is when the game really begins. You will really start getting kills here because people expect Ryze to run from AD carries and attack from range. With the armor and added damage from the frozen heart, you can take the hits they put out and not waste time running. Then you throw out your spell combo and its all "BOOM GOES THE DYNAMITE!!!!"

The rest of the items are pretty subjective. I generally build the arcangel's staff last, if I have the money. The other items are just more important. You are going to have to hit tab and see what they are building in order to know what you should do next.

Viod Staff -- this one is fairly easy. you already have a little magic penetration based on the sorcerer's boots. But if you need a little more, then go with this. If the enemy is building magic resistance, you are going to really need this. Magic resistance will put you out of the fight quicker than anything else. As you Ryze, you rely on your ability to deal a lot of damage really fast. If you can't do that, not even Frozen heart will save you.

Rabadon's Deathcap -- Remember how I said that you should be dealing a lot of damage really fast? Well, that is where this item comes in. This is a huge ability power item. It gives you a lot of AP and it's passive gives you even more. It doesn't get much better than that for a mage. Just make sure that you don't need one of the other items first, cause Rabadon's will break the bank.

Banshee's Veil -- This item lends itself mostly to a mage fighting another mage. If there is another really bursty mage (like what you are gonna be) then you should get this item. I picked this item because it also gives you more mana. With this, you gain the same sort of influence that you get from frozen heart. Protection and damage, all rolled into one neat little package.

To me, this is a fairly simple portion of the guide. Just rock the 21/0/9 and make things easy. get AP and cooldown and mana and bonus damage. I would suggest using clarity and teleport as your spells, and making sure that you pick the mastery that powers them up. If you want some other spell, then use some other spell. I was raised to never use a summoner spell without the corresponding mastery to boost it.

Runes are an iffy thing for me. There are a lot of different variables that you need consider. Mana is really good to have with Ryze. It boosts his sustainability in lane and allows him to do more damage. The damage boost that you get from the mana (on q and w abilites) from the flat mana is comparable to what you get from flat AP. The sustainability is really important early game, however, cause Ryze needs to make a lot of money.

To me, it is more important to build Ryze for a strong early game rather than designing him for a strong late game. He already has a strong late game! Why try and fix something that isn't broken? It's his early game that really needs work.

So, I build mana for sustainability and damage so that I can start building up the tank and bust damage needed to really play Ryze.

Clarity -- super important for Ryze through every phase of the game. Even though this build gives him a TON of mana, Ryze still has the ability to cast spells faster than any caster I have seen or used. For this reason, it is very easy to burn through a lot of mana really fast. Especially against champions that attack one at a time, or in waves. This means that clarity will save you from missing a lot of kills. I can't count the number of times that I would have missed the kill simply because I didn't have the mana.

Teleport -- Ryze is a really slow runner. So going to the shop and getting back to the lane takes a long time. If you are solo mid, this is time that you cannot lose. You need to get in, buy, and get out fast. Teleport is the best way to do that. This spell will also allow you to join team fights quickly, aid people being ganked, and generally be a terror to the opposing team.

Other useful spells --

Flash -- Pretty straight forward. gives you an escape option, allows you to close gaps when chasing, and has a ton of other uses. This spell could be the difference between a kill and a just push, or getting away and dying. The only thing that keeps me from using it is that it would have to take the place of teleport. I just feel that is more important.

Ignite -- Not really necessary. If you are doing the right spell order, then you shouldn't need to use this damage-over-time spell. Even if you are missing with your spells a little bit, this isn't really going to help you. The max range for this spell is a little bit short of the max range of Ryze's spells. Unless you get in close, this is spell is just gonna sit on your HUD and look pretty.

The other spells are something that you will have to look into on your own. It costs you nothing but time to try them out and see what they can do and how you can use them. But, I am still saying that you should go with clarity and teleport.

Ryze is a self sustaining mage who can build mana and AP without losing out on either one. So, building a lot of mana allows you to generate a lot of damage output per shot, and putting a lot of spells in the air. This is a huge advantage that a lot of really mana dependent mages don't have.

The other big thing that you have to keep in mind with Ryze is his Passive. Using an ability reduces the cool down of all other abilities by one second. In the skills sequence section you will see the order that I would suggest spells be used for optimal damage. Wise usage of Ryze's passive is what separates good players and people who spam the buttons.

This is really important to the way I play Ryze. He builds off of mana. This means that his abilities do more damage based on his mana. The unfortunate bit is that the only spells that this is true for are his q and w. Fortunately, those are the only abilities you really need.

I start with w because it gives you a chance to get away from melee champs early game. You can suppress someone and then pull back. The suppress does damage and allows you to run behind minions or get a few auto-attacks in. Moving from there to overload allows you to do a lot of damage and suppress in quick sucession.

His E is something I only use to fuel his passive and use overload more often. It also makes a pretty good minion farmer. If there are several weak minions, you can get several last hits as it bounces around.

Here is the most important thing that you can get out of this guide:

Ryze's passive is what seperates good Ryze players from spell spammers. His passive states that using an ability decreases the cooldown of his other abilites by 1 second. If you do not use the spells in the right order, you will make this passive useless. Your most powerful spell in this build is overload. It has a two second cool down. That is a pretty long cooldown compared to the rate of an auto attack. BUT there is a way to make your overload feel like an auto attack. The order below is the order that I use for attacking enemy champions.

Q-W-Q-R-Q-E-Q

Once you unleash the last Q, you will probably have other spells coming off cooldown as well. This is just one rotation of the sequence. Using this allows you to deal a lot of damage, and then supress. Immediately after that supress, you deal a lot more damage. And there is nothing they can do to stop you. The R ability will give you spell vamp, added damage, and area of effect damage. Then, you hit them with Q AGAIN! As always, E is just an ability that I use to recharge another Q. If you don't think that you will need the 4th Q to kill the champ, then replace the R with E and save your ulti for when you really need it.

Later in the game (ie after you get Rabadon's) you will be able to do even more burst damage. This is true not only for q and w, but also for e (which only builds with AP, not mana).

Team work is fairly simple for Ryze. You excel at putting out a lot of damage really fast, as well as taking a decent amount of AD damage. Use that to your advantage and take out the other teams AD DPS characters. Target them first. Attack them with the combo above and kill them before they can damage the squishier members of your team. This is your job as a tank-carry mage. After that, start picking of the other champs. You may not be able to kill tanks straight up, but running through the combo more than once will bring them to their knees.

Be sure to attack people attacking your team mates, and be very liberal with your suppression. Feel free to use your clarity to support surrounding mages and AP carries as well.

Remeber, however, that you need to concentrate on a single champion when you enter a team fight. Be very careful to target a single champ until they are dead. If you don't focus, then you will just send a lot of champions back to the store to heal. While this isn't a bad thing, it is easier to push a lane when champions are dead rather than just hurting.

There is more to this champion than meets the eye.

Build Ryze as a tanky-bursty mage using mana and armor from things like the frozen heart and the banshee's veil.

Mana builds up the damage of Ryze's q and w, as well as allowing you to cast them over and over. This means that you can build both damage and usage with the same item, with little to no power sacrifice.

Using Ryze's passive is what separates good players from not so good players. When you use an ability, the cooldowns of your other abilities are reduced by 1 second. Using the right sequence of spells can mean the difference between getting a kill and running around with all your spells cooling down.

SEQUENCE -- Q-W-Q-R-Q-E-Q
lather, rinse, repeat

Remeber to just have fun! No champ is the most powerful or the best or the easiest to play as when you first pick them up. If you put in a little bit of time, however, I can guarantee that Ryze will give any other player a few deaths and put a few kills on your totals.